Friday, November 27, 2009

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We did. We celebrated with some friends and enjoyed some great food and great company. The kids had a fun time running around and laughing, and we had a fun time watching.Kids are so amazing and full of energy and wonder. Ah, to be a kid again.Looking back to when I was a kid, remembering what we did on Thanksgiving, all I can picture is a house full of family, good food, and us cousins running around together creating massive amounts of chaos.It makes me sad to think that my kids don't really get to see their cousins that often because of our choice to stay in the military. There are so many reasons to be in the military, and so many reasons to be close to family. Traditions is one of them.I am really looking to create wonderful and meaningful traditions for our kids, and ones they want to carry on with their future families. Do you have any ideas? For Thanksgiving, Christmas, or maybe just any in general. Favorites?

Monday, November 23, 2009

The last couple days, I have found myself actually reading a cookbook. I saw that Soulemama (I read her blog daily) used this particular cookbook, and all the food she makes looks amazing, so I thought I would order it from the library, and I am glad I did. The recipes just seem so simple and I bet they will taste amazing, although, I have only used the pancake recipe as of yet (and it was pretty good, maybe just a little too thick). The book is called Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros, and I have requested it for my Christmas gift from Tyler. I will be trying out more recipes as soon as we do a little shopping :)I also have been sewing and knitting, although it seems like nothing is getting finished, just started! Here are some pictures of the Christmas stockings I am knitting. You can find the pattern for free on ravelry or here, and I just modified it for stripes (I love stripes) and I added some experimental decorative stitching on Colton's. For some reason, I had never tried seed stitch before, but I really like it.Scissors have been the "it" thing for my kids lately. They found some decorative ones I had in the garage for crafting, and totally latched onto them. They keep them busy for quite some time, so I figure I will let them... but only at the tables. I just love how they get so into cutting and concentrate so hard!Tyler has also been keeping them busy with train tracks.. one of our favorite toys at the moment! He actually took these pictures just so he could make an exact replica the next day per request from Colton. What parents do for their kids right?!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Today, we decided to take the kids bowling. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera; but we had a fantastic time. After a quiet deliberation between Tyler and I, we decided to play only one game, so the kids wouldn't get worn out. And they did awesome!! Of course, we had bumpers up, but guess who won overall?Ayla did.Here are the rough estimates of scores:Ayla 126Tyler 118Brooke 98Colton 79

I find myself usually under 100 when I bowl (which has been FOREVER), but seriously? Beaten by a 2 year old!!! She however couldn't have cared less... all she wanted was the pink ball. She sat with it while she was waiting her turn, and had a tough time when I decided to use it for my turn.All in all, it was a great time, and we plan to do it again very soon in the near future.

In other news, I am still working on my knitting and sewing for Christmas presents. I am working on stockings for the kids, and they are turning out really nice... my first attempt at socks! In the sewing world, I am working on reusable gift bags and then some actual presents... hope I can get most everything done, but we will see. I haven't really been motivated to sew because I always seem to make a huge mess on the kitchen table, and I don't like to clean it up... go figure!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Grammie Roxanne and Grandpa Pat were here for the last weekend; and we had such a great time! Tyler and Grandpa left early in the weekend for hunting, but the kids, Grammie and I did stuff around the house. We crafted a lot... Grammie got alot of her knitting done for Christmas, and I started a stocking for Ayla (more on that later!).One of the best things we did was make a felted garland for our Christmas season. I think we are going to use it on the tree. The idea came from the book Handmade Home by Amanda Soule (aka Soulemama). I absolutely love this book, and think it is worth taking a look at if you like to craft things - her blog is awesome too!First we felted scraps I had left from making woolies... sweaters that I had bought from thrift shops (felting is pretty easy... just wash in hot water, then dry in the dryer for quite a while! This makes the weave tighter and easier to work with for this project); then we cut them all up into square-like shapes... Colton even helped with this. Next, we threaded some yarn and used a big needle to string square after square. Both the kids helped with this part, and were quite pleased with their work. And both Grammie and I were quite impressed with their abilities... who knew!

We also decided to have an early Thanksgiving... so Sunday and Monday, we prepared a full feast:turkey with a sage rubapple gravygreen bean casserolesausage stuffingbroccoli cheddar dishmashed white and sweet potatoesfresh cranberry saucehomemade rollsand of course : homemade apple and pumpkin pies!

Everything was absolutely wonderful!!! I couldn't believe how it all just came together, mostly because of Roxanne and her dedication! Couldn't have done it without her! The kids had fun helping when and where they could.. punching the bread dough and rolling the biscuits. We all ate so much we almost couldn't move! That is, except the kids... they aren't quite appreciative of great comfort food. Oh, well... more for Tyler and I.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

yes, she is shirtless! She decided to spill all down her shirt... which is very typical.

I got my hair cut - finally! - right before we went on our trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We went on the trip for Tyler's work, and we had a good time. The kids played with other kids there... we had a babysitter (that charged an arm and a leg!) so we got some adult time... but we didn't actually take many pictures. Go figure. I managed one of the Tetons on our way out (the park was unfortunately closed) and some of the kids on the car ride home! They did AWESOME, with few meltdowns, and a couple potty breaks.

And here is a belly picture... kind of. We are 24 weeks almost with lots of kicking and hiccups!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Every night we gather up the cats before we go to bed and put them in the laundry room. If we do not do this, they tend to sleep by our heads and purr all night, which isn't really conducive to a full nights sleep! Last night we were looking for Sofa, and Tyler came downstairs and said, "You have to go upstairs and see this"... usually this means someone is doing something completely adorable.... and it was. Sofa the cat was snuggled up close to his favorite little girl, in her crib. This cat puts up with the kids pulling on him and laying on him without too much of a fuss, but you can tell he really appreciates it when they are asleep!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Here are pictures of Tyler and his deer (Bucky II). I guess he is a 4 point with eye guards... I just happen to know next to nothing about deer.... but I do enjoy venison. Knowing that your husband has hunted for his family, and you are eating a wild, natural animal is nice. Almost like growing your own vegetables... but not quite! I am not a fan of the blood and guts; that is what Tyler is for!

The kids had a great time with Grandpa Pat. Even though he spent a lot of time out and about looking for the right deer or elk (no luck this time, but maybe next), they still saw him most nights, and seemed to warm up pretty quickly. Ayla looks like she got her big blue eyes from his side of the family (Tyler and I both have greenish eyes)...